Northern Irish police miss dead body on sofa in two searches

Did you hear the one about the two Northern Irish police officers who failed to notice a dead body?

Not once, but twice!

The bumbling PSNI officers were sent to the home of a Derry man who had been reported missing by a neighbor.

They said they carried out an intensive search but failed to notice the decomposing body of the man under a blanket on his sofa.

The body of the man was not discovered until the THIRD search of the flat at Deramore Drive in Strathfoyle in September 2008 after he had been dead for several days.

Over to Martina Anderson Policing Board member and Foyle MLA: “On September 14, 2008, a lady reported to the PSNI that she had not seen her neighbour for over a week. She called back the following day to say that he still had not been seen. Later that afternoon, two officers were tasked to visit the man’s home. One of them entered the property and conducted a cursory search, finding nothing.

“The following day, another two officers were sent to the house to try and establish the missing man’s whereabouts. Again, an initial search failed to find him and it was only when a neighbour explained that the missing man had previously been found asleep under a blanket on the sofa that his decomposing remains were found.”

The man, believed to be his 40s, had died before the first call was made to the police and there is no suggestion of foul play.